[Solved] Brother HL-2270DW Printer Problems

I grew weary of keeping a Windows VM running just so I could print to my old Lexmark AIO. So, I purchased a Brother HL-2270DW after reading several glowing reviews and verifying linux support from the Brother website. Currently I have it installed on the network, and can print to it from Arch using the latest drivers provided by Brother.

The print quality is fine. However, the alignment is not. Everything prints offset (approx. 1/4" high and 3/8" to the right). I have verified that the page size settings (US Letter) are correct in the cups interface, the printer (via its web interface), as well as the applications I am printing from. The printers web interface provides an option to configure a printing offset for both X and Y axis, and I have used this to try and correct the alignment. The results have been unsatisfactory. I have even experimented with other Brother drivers to no avail. The same documents printed from an XP VM, are aligned correctly.

Does anyone currently have this printer operating correctly? If so, please share your config. I would really prefer not to package this thing up and ship it back, if at all possible.

Re: [Solved] Brother HL-2270DW Printer Problems

Just a long shot, but someone mentioned this in an Amazon review of the printer:

If you get this printer, keep in mind the paper feed in this unit is towards the front of the tray. I'm accustomed to the top of the sheet feeding towards the rear of the tray. I was printing adhesive labels and having alignment problems until I realized this difference.

Re: [Solved] Brother HL-2270DW Printer Problems

Thanks for the reply. I double checked the paper tray, and all is well. As I mentioned, it prints fine from a Windows XP virtual machine. I also used the Windows software to check for any firmware updates, and the installed version is the latest available. Brother phone support is little help, as they do not provide official support for printing issues on the linux platform, despite the fact that they provide linux drivers for this product.

Re: [Solved] Brother HL-2270DW Printer Problems

Hmmm.... I've actually got one of these printers due to be delivered on Monday, so I'll find out myself soon! (Though I will be using A4 size paper rather than US Letter.)This is indeed a curious problem as there do seem to be quite a few Archers using this printer successfully, and I haven't seen a report of alignment or offset difficulties like yours.Under Arch, what happens if you print to a PDF file or to the CUPS-PDF virtual printer instead? Just wondering if the problem is leaning more towards CUPS itself or the specific printer driver ...

Re: [Solved] Brother HL-2270DW Printer Problems

Actually, that was one of the first things I tried. Previously, with the Windows-only Lexmark, I frequently used the cups-pdf printer to generate a pdf, which I would then open and print from a shared folder on a Windows VM. Currently, the output from cups-pdf looks fine in a viewer, and prints fine from my Windows VM. The same file, printed natively from Arch to the HL-2270, will be offset as mentioned above. At this point, it seems most likely that the problem is with the Brother driver. But, as you said, this printer is quite popular among the linux crowd. So , surely if it was a driver issue, I wouldn't be the only one with this problem.

Re: [Solved] Brother HL-2270DW Printer Problems

I tried the method to which you linked. Indeed, it does eliminate the "offset" problem I was having, and at first glance looks like one would expect. However I still have a "scale" issue.

For example: I have a PDF of an entire sheet of mailing labels. When printed from Windows, this PDF prints perfectly aligned for the label stock. The same file, printed from Arch, does not align with the label stock and prints "compressed" towards the center of the page If I print the sheet of labels on plain paper and compare the positioning by laying a blank page of labels over top of it, they fail to match. Furthermore, if I re-position the two pages so that the first row of the labels printed on the plain paper align with the first row of the blank sheet of labels, the labels in subsequent rows gradually fail to align to the point of almost 1" by the time I get to the bottom of the page. The same effect occurs in the columns as well.

Re: [Solved] Brother HL-2270DW Printer Problems

In case anyone has the same issue, I'm updating this with my solution and marking it as "solved".

Here's what happened:I needed to print a pdf from another Arch box that I rarely use to print from. The printer in question was already installed (networked) and using the same driver as my main desktop. To my amazement, the resulting printout was positioned correctly on the paper - no "offset", no distortions, no scaling issues! The only difference between the two machines was the application used for viewing (and printing) the pdf. I switched the first machine from Evince to epdfview, and all is good now. I'm unsure as to "why", and I don't have the time now to investigate further, but Evince was causing the problem.

Re: [Solved] Brother HL-2270DW Printer Problems

Well, I must agree that the PDF viewer used can massively affect the printed output.Ironically, I found Evince to be generally better than the others ... but obviously, your mileage will vary!I almost installed Acrobat Reader to see how it would do, but its crazy size soon stopped that thought.